So today I woke up after a late night of Eddie Griffin and Dave Chappelle standup shows. Prior to that I rewatched Seven Pounds( this movie here is just beautiful, I highly suggest you watch it if you haven't already, or even if you have).

Like I was saying I woke up and naturally like every morning I went downstairs for some Joe, but we were out so I had to stick with a glass of Milk. Now, don't get bored just yet and go tl;dr, I'm getting to my point. I decided to check out the news on my phone while I drank my milk, when I stumbled into this particular article. link

Now I usually pay no mind to the crazies of the religious as they don't make up the entire community of the religious and I know some wonderful Christians, but this story caught my attention because of a so called "cure for gay."

Spoiler:Article

Highlight this box with your cursor to read the spoiler text.

quote Article

SACRAMENTO (Reuters) - A Christian legal group urged a federal judge on Friday to halt a landmark California law that bars a controversial therapy aimed at reversing homosexuality from being used on children and teenagers, calling the law a violation of privacy and free speech.

California's Democratic Governor Jerry Brown signed the ban into law in September, making the nation's most populous state the first to ban so-called conversion therapy among youths. Gay rights advocates say the therapy can psychologically harm gay and lesbian youths.

"What we have here is the state coming into the doctor-patient, client-counselor relationship and saying that you can only present one viewpoint," attorney Mathew Staver, the dean of the evangelical Liberty University law school, told the court in seeking an injunction to halt the law pending legal challenges.

He was arguing on behalf of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality and the American Association of Christian Counselors, as well as unnamed individuals who sued shortly after the law was signed.

The law, due to go into effect on January 1, bars therapists from performing sexual-orientation change counseling with children and teenagers under 18 and was supported by the California Psychological Association among other groups.

Passage of the law marked a major victory for gay rights advocates who say the treatment, also called reparative therapy, has no medical basis because homosexuality is not a disorder.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs in the case argue that the law violates constitutionally protected rights to free speech and freedom of religion, and denies the rights of parents to choose how to raise their children.

Attorneys for the state were joined by lawyers from Equality California, which was a sponsor of the bill, in arguing that there is substantial evidence that the practice causes harm to those who undergo it.

The judge in the case, Kimberly Mueller, expressed concern during the hearing that banning licensed practitioners from offering the therapy would only drive parents to seek out the treatment from "unlicensed quacks" or out-of-state providers.

She said she was likely to rule next week in the case, filed against Brown and other state officials. Another similar suit seeking a separate injunction against the law will be argued in federal court on Monday.

Spoiler:Article

quote Article

SACRAMENTO (Reuters) - A Christian legal group urged a federal judge on Friday to halt a landmark California law that bars a controversial therapy aimed at reversing homosexuality from being used on children and teenagers, calling the law a violation of privacy and free speech.

California's Democratic Governor Jerry Brown signed the ban into law in September, making the nation's most populous state the first to ban so-called conversion therapy among youths. Gay rights advocates say the therapy can psychologically harm gay and lesbian youths.

"What we have here is the state coming into the doctor-patient, client-counselor relationship and saying that you can only present one viewpoint," attorney Mathew Staver, the dean of the evangelical Liberty University law school, told the court in seeking an injunction to halt the law pending legal challenges.

He was arguing on behalf of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality and the American Association of Christian Counselors, as well as unnamed individuals who sued shortly after the law was signed.

The law, due to go into effect on January 1, bars therapists from performing sexual-orientation change counseling with children and teenagers under 18 and was supported by the California Psychological Association among other groups.

Passage of the law marked a major victory for gay rights advocates who say the treatment, also called reparative therapy, has no medical basis because homosexuality is not a disorder.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs in the case argue that the law violates constitutionally protected rights to free speech and freedom of religion, and denies the rights of parents to choose how to raise their children.

Attorneys for the state were joined by lawyers from Equality California, which was a sponsor of the bill, in arguing that there is substantial evidence that the practice causes harm to those who undergo it.

The judge in the case, Kimberly Mueller, expressed concern during the hearing that banning licensed practitioners from offering the therapy would only drive parents to seek out the treatment from "unlicensed quacks" or out-of-state providers.

She said she was likely to rule next week in the case, filed against Brown and other state officials. Another similar suit seeking a separate injunction against the law will be argued in federal court on Monday.

Now I want to know since when has homosexuality been a "disease" or disorder needing a "cure", which by the way is just sugarcoating that they'll brain *bleep* these kids. I mean isn't it bad enough that the youths grow up thinking there is something wrong with them because they are gay/whatever falls into it, but now you want to psychologically harm them because of religion. It just makes me sad and angry to think people would go so far.

I'd say more but I'm pretty disgusted at the moment so I'll leave it here before I start accusing/generalizing all Christians or religious folk.

It won't be overturned, especially in California. There will be enough backing from the media and popular figures calling the therapy discriminatory to pass the law. Sad how some Christians actually believe that someone's sexual preference can be changed. (Coming from a Christian)

I'm more worried about the idea of them seeking alternative 'treatments' as per the article. Bad enough that licensed practitioners with some sort of expectation of professionalism offer it, but if they go to some quack, as the article put it, instead...There is no real expectation of education or oversight with those sorts. Meaning that all sorts of radical 'treatments' will be considered, including potentially dangerous and certainly psychologically harmful ones.

They'll just do up to and including whatever parents are willing to have them do to 'convert' their children.

Professionals can be bad enough (there have been horror stories about people with psychology degrees or whatever, doing all sorts of psychological experiments and justifying terrible treatment under the guise of research and the like.). Private citizens, especially those that are misguided can't be expected to know what is and isn't 'too far', by a long shot.

Hey look, there is a thread about religion on Neoseeker, this can only end well.

I'd post a proper reply but I'm on a mobile device and typing is awful so it's not worth the effort so I'll just shorten it down to a conclusion and I'll deal with some of you nutters tomorrow when I've got a proper keyboard:

The mention of California is actually a bit misleading. While it's true we're liberal hippies here it seems we not the lead for gay rights. Despite having San Francisco both Colorado and Washington have beaten us to the punch with the legalization of gay marriage.

You lucky bastard. I didn't even think he was still doing standup. Was it good?

(Fundamentalists suck, yada yada)

Well, I watched it on Youtube, if it makes you feel better.

I'd sure give up a kidney to see him do some standup though.

Shadow of Death indeed, that's probably the more worrying part of it. I can see people using it as a way to not only brain *bleep* them but imagine if a child molestor or something of that nature goes around parading as a therapist.

Man, I know the ban isn't gonna be taken out but it's the possibilities that some really sick people could exploit some families that gets at me. Well that and them trying to tell a kid that homosexuality is some sort of disease.

Shadow of Death if you look at previous articles like this, you'll see that reaction several times.

Several times =/= all the time though.

But it's no surprising people voice their views against religion in general when all we really hear is the bad side.

Same way people moan about how humanity is going completely to shit. We always hear bad news, and the good stuff is generally overlooked.

What's really annoying is that, most of this fundamentalist christian stuff happens in the US, but some here would still use it to attack Christians in general. I don't hear this kind of news in Germany or other places (besides that abortion thing in Ireland)